The best on hold messaging programs return anywhere between 0 and 10,000% return on the initial investment.   There may be certainly be weeks, months, or even a year whereby it may be difficult to completely and convincingly attribute transactions and sales to the on hold program.  Most likely, sales ‘happened’, but the sale could not be completely traced or attributed to the program.  Or maybe the program content was more designed to make general branding statements or provide educational content to customers on hold.   And then there are those glorious occasions that make your on hold provider dance for joy and plead for a written testimonial.  That’s the monster $600,000 sale that was easy attributed to the on hold program, because the customer happened to ask somebody to tell them a bit more about a new service or product they heard about while they were on hold. 

 It happens. 

It happened to one of our customers, and they were kind enough to call us up and tell us.  We wonder how often it happens and we don’t get the phone call.  We also wonder how often it happens and our customer is not made aware of what initiated the sale.   Well…..we’ll readily admit it’s somewhat difficult to truly track ROI and sales efforts to an on hold messaging program. 

However, even if the answer was 0%, the reality is that a good on hold messaging program pays for itself quickly.  For a buck or two a day, take into consideration the work that the program is doing in terms of just keeping a customer holding instead of hanging up.  If you don’t have an on hold messaging program, “Silence” on hold is not golden.  People hang up on silence, and quickly at that. 

Do you return those ‘beep-beep’ tones that are considered a phone system feature?  Beep tones can drive your callers crazy and be confused as being call-waiting.  Playing a radio station on hold?  A radio station may promote your competitor, or a simple music file can get old very quickly.  A ‘hang-up’ caller may very well be an existing customer that calls a competitor.  That’s lost revenue, and it might be big $’s. So……if you can’t seem to measure the ROI of your program, don’t fret.  Your program is always quietly and certainly paying for itself. 

In addition to giving you another avenue to build your brand, it is also functioning as a tool to keeps folks holding.  Other forms of advertising (billboards, direct mail, TV / radio advertising) fill no other function other than to simply advertise.  Your low cost on hold messaging program is fulfilling a crucial additional function.   So is your program paying for itself?  Yes.   Can I accurately measure how many sales $’s are generated?  Probably not.